Protestants back revival of joint government

Published: Sunday, May 28, 2000

BELFAST, Northern Ireland {AP} Northern Ireland's bitterly divided major Protestant party voted Saturday to revive a joint government with Catholics, but the party's leader warned the coalition would survive only if the Irish Republican Army disarms.

The grassroots council of the Ulster Unionist party decided by a 459-403 vote to resume power-sharing alongside the IRA-linked Sinn Fein starting Tuesday. The outcome won quick praise from Britain, Ireland and the United States.

"The wind is back in the sails of peace in Northern Ireland," President Clinton declared in Washington.

The province's power-sharing government began operating in December, ending 27 years of direct rule by Britain, but it was suspended 11 weeks later because the IRA refused to make any disarmament commitments. The IRA broke the impasse three weeks ago, promising to begin putting its weapons "beyond use" a euphemism for disarming if power-sharing resumed.

Before Saturday's vote, Ulster Unionist chief David Trimble argued during a behind-closed-doors debate that his party must test the IRA's promise. With his leadership on the line, Trimble got backing from 53 percent of the party council.

"I and my colleagues will hold the republicans to the promises they have made. If there's any foot-dragging ... there will be difficulties."

David Trimble Ulster Unionist chief

"It is patently obvious that those promises must be delivered," a relieved but still vulnerable Trimble said afterward. "And let there be absolutely no doubt that I and my colleagues will hold the republicans to the promises they have made. If there's any foot-dragging, if there's any delay, there will be difficulties."

Sinn Fein and the province's biggest Catholic-supported party, the Social Democratic and Labor Party, welcomed Trimble's narrow victory as essential to ensuring the success of the Good Friday peace accord.

That landmark 1998 pact envisioned a Catholic-Protestant administration buoyed by gradual paramilitary disarmament. Though progress has been slowed by mutual suspicions, the continuing cease-fires observed by the IRA and outlawed pro-British groups have helped keep the process alive.

"Inclusivity, equality and mutual respect is the way forward," said Martin McGuinness, a former IRA chief of staff due to resume work as Sinn Fein's education minister in the Cabinet.

Whether Northern Ireland's unlikely local coalition flowers or withers once again will largely depend on IRA actions.

Sinn Fein declined to speculate on when the IRA would begin to reveal any of its secret weapons dumps to international inspectors. That was the most concrete commitment made by the outlawed group in its May 6 declaration to put its weapons "completely and verifiably beyond use."